The Sierra Madre Tattler!

Friday, December 9, 2016

Mod: Much to the chagrin of some folks who used to enjoy The Tattler (but don't anymore), our reader traffic numbers have increased markedly over the last two weeks or so. I will admit that things had hit the skids for a little bit there. And yes, there are a couple of individuals who actually monitor the traffic on this blog because they hope to prove that my inability to suck up to that barking half-mad lunatic Donald Trump like they have has somehow caused a mass desertion of readers here. Like who gives a hoot, right? It's not like I sell advertising, or have media ratings quotas.

However, much of this burgeoning new readership is apparently not from the United States. According to the statistics that I get to see in the internal workings of this blog, and which I am sharing with you today, a big chunk of The Tattler's readership is now from Russia. Check out the screenshot of last week's numbers I have posted above. This is really quite a surprising development. One that has now nearly doubled the size of our audience.

What is the reason for this? I think it could have something to do with Russia's fascination with Donald Trump. Many in Russia believe that they are responsible for his becoming president. And having bamboozled the American people into electing (sort of - link) a candidate who seems determined to work against the interests of those who voted for him, and to the detriment of their old nemesis the United States, these Russian folks are tickled pink about it. So off they've gone to websites such as this one looking for American coverage of their new hero, the Comb Over Caligula.

The Tattler does hate to disappoint. Here is a story that I found interesting, and hope they will, too.

Donald Trump Will Produce Upcoming ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ (The Huffington Postlink): President-elect Donald Trump is staying on as an executive producer of NBC’s “The New Celebrity Apprentice” despite his impending responsibilities as leader of the free world, according to reports Thursday in The New York Times and Variety.The popular program, which propelled the businessman to national prominence and paved the way for his eventual presidential win, is set to begin airing again in January with its new host, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The show went off the air during Trump’s presidential bid.MGM, which produces the show for NBC, confirmed to Variety that Trump will still be one of the program’s executive producers, and that MGM, not NBC, will pay the president-elect’s fees. (MGM did not return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.)Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed the news, noting that the president-elect has a “big stake” in the program, which has licensed several international editions. “Mr. Trump has a big stake in the show and conceived of it with Mark Burnett. Additional details regarding his business interests will be shared December 15th,” Hicks said in a statement. Trump’s role is rife with potential entanglements. While his paycheck will come from MGM, the program airs on NBC, a major broadcast network with an influential news division (which employs reporters Trump has personally attacked). It’s also the same network that airs “Saturday Night Live,” a show Trump has criticized on numerous occasions for its unflattering depiction of him. And NBC is owned by Comcast, a corporation that was recently slapped with a hefty fine by the Federal Communications Commission ― an entity that will soon be under Trump’s control.
Why shouldn't the leader of the free world also be the producer of a reality TV show, one starring another overblown gasbag noted for groping women, Arnold Schwarzenegger? After all, we are living in the "post-reality era," so it all fits. I guess.

Here's another one for my Russki pals.

Did You Notice Anything Weird About Donald Trump's Time Cover? (Esquirelink):I stopped caring about Time's Person of the Year about a decade ago when the Time's Person of the Year was me. Since then, the infamous title has been given to Vladimir Putin, "The Protester," and Mark Zuckerberg—plus some less controversial choices, such as last year's pick, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and 2012 honoree Barack Obama.These people, along with the title, annually grace the cover of Time's illustrious print magazine. This year, noted conspiracy theorist and hair-haver (and, sure, President-elect) Donald Trump was named Time Person of the Year. But there seems to be something strange going on.Take a look at the cover of the magazine.Do you see that?Yes! Horns! They gave him horns! The "M" in Time it looks like horns of the bad kind, and people on Twitter are thrilled about it:

Well, there you go. Horns with a bit of a comb over failure to boot. What a "Time" to be alive in the US of A.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Newsmax (link), as you might already be aware, is a very large and self-described conservative news organization with a website that gets about 4 million hits as month. As a convenient means of comparison, the Sierra Madre Tattler has over 4 million hits, however it took most of a decade for us to reach so lofty a pinnacle. But that's OK, we still feel pretty good about ourselves, anyway. So you know, here is how Wikipedia explains the mighty reach of Newsmax (link):

Nielsen Online said Newsmax.com was the most trafficked conservative website with approximately 4 million unique visitors monthly.[9] A 2010 study released by Nielsen reported that Newsmax.com was the number one site for conservatives in the U.S., making it one of the most influential conservative news sites in the nation.[1] Alexa Internet statistics for Newsmax.com indicate that the readership consists mainly of Internet users over the age of 45, which aligns itself to the average age of Republican leaning voters, as gathered by The Pew Research Center.[13][14]A profile on Newsmax in The New York Times described the company as a "potent force" in U.S. politics and noted the company's headquarters had become a must stop for Republican candidates seeking the party's 2012 nomination.[15]
So when Newsmax describes Sierra Madre (not Pasadena or Arcadia let me hasten to add) as one of America's Top 25 Christmas Destinations, you know a lot of people will see it. And now you will as well. Here is how the article kicks it all off (link).

So where, you are anxiously asking, does Sierra Madre fit in this pantheon of Christmas Greats? What position does it hold amongst all of these legendary locations. What if I told you it was Number 10? Would you dare believe me? Here's the proof.

Now perhaps you noticed the phrase, "Life-size Nativity scene?" The one that certain dark forces in this town are attempting to replace with things as nutrition-free as a "permanent year-round holiday tree?"

Well, now Sierra Madre has another reason for not doing something quite as stupid as that. It is not what the town has now become famous for, nor what America wants to see.

I'm not exactly sure where the road with the 154 Christmas trees is, Altadena I've been told. Not Sierra Madre. And the rumor I'm hearing is this article first appeared in an Autoclub magazine called Sunset. A much smaller venue I suspect.

But the Chamber of Commerce really needs to get all over this one anyway. They're still around, right?

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Mod: I thought this might be interesting for some. About the Kensington, here is what went down in Sierra Madre from the vantage point of the international business and investment community. No matter how this all was presented in town several years back, especially in regards to that locally perceived urgent need to quickly approve this project for its immediate construction, there was this other side to the picture as well. Apparently those involved with the Tokyo-based investors financing this project thought it all went through tout suite. This summary is from Berkshire Hathaway'sBusiness Wire.RED Provides $29M Fannie Mae DUS/MBS Refinance for Class A Assisted Living and Memory Care Community in San Gabriel Valley (Business Wire link): COLUMBUS, Ohio--In the exclusive town of Sierra Madre, California, a high-barrier to entry and highly competitive infill market in Los Angeles County, RED Capital Group and Borrower, Kensington SM GP LLC, worked together to bring a Class A Assisted Living and Memory Care community to an area that was previously underserved in terms of seniors housing. Construction and lease-up of The Kensington Sierra Madre was completed in record time, leading to a recent $29M refinance with Fannie Mae DUS/MBS.

“RED was delighted to work with Fannie Mae to provide the permanent debt for this outstanding quality seniors housing asset located in a significantly underserved and built-out Los Angeles submarket”

The Kensington Sierra Madre is a 75-suite Assisted Living and Memory Care community located in Sierra Madre, California, which is in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley, just to the north of the City of Los Angeles. The property, which is home to up to 90 residents, includes 41 assisted living suites and 34 memory care suites, complemented by welcoming resident common areas for dining, living and socializing, and gardens throughout the grounds. The community is operated by Kensington Senior Living, LLC (KSL).

In this difficult to zone market, high barriers to entry were met by exceptional community outreach and multiple successful votes, including public approval on the 2012 Presidential Ballot. The fulfillment of RED’s and KSL’s vision in Sierra Madre is a testament to the patience, perseverance, and expertise required to deliver a best-in-class seniors housing community in such a desirable location.

This was a ground up construction loan for RED’s proprietary balance sheet lending capabilities that transitioned effortlessly into a permanent Fannie Mae loan ahead of schedule.

“RED was delighted to work with Fannie Mae to provide the permanent debt for this outstanding quality seniors housing asset located in a significantly underserved and built-out Los Angeles submarket,” states Kathryn Burton Gray, Senior Managing Director for RED. “Kensington Senior Living, the operator, implemented its best-in-class assisted living and memory care programming which resulted in a rapid lease-up and stabilization, and performance levels exceeding expectations.”

Kensington Senior Living, LLC (KSL), which owns and operates The Kensington, is led by industry-veterans Tiffany Tomasso, Dave Faeder, Billy Shields and Dan Gorham. The group is headquartered in Reston, VA and currently owns and operates five assisted living & memory care communities including two in California, one in Maryland, one in Virginia and one in New York with four more in development.Dan Gorham, Partner at Kensington Senior Living LLC, said of the recent refinance, “RED provided classic ‘one stop shopping’ by funding a well leveraged construction loan and originating an attractive take-out with Fannie Mae. All within three years!”

About RED CAPITAL GROUP, LLC

Recognized for its industry expertise, innovative and comprehensive structures, and consistently high rankings, RED Capital Group, LLC has provided over $73 billion of integrated debt and equity capital since 1990 to the seniors housing and health care, multifamily, affordable, and student housing industries through three operating companies.

ORIX USA provides innovative capital solutions that clients need to propel their business to the next level. Based in Dallas, ORIX USA has a team of more than 600 employees spanning nearly 20 offices across the U.S. and Brazil. ORIX USA and its family of companies offer investment capital and asset management services to clients in the corporate, real estate, municipal and energy sectors, while holding $6 billion of assets and managing an additional $29 billion, approximately. Its parent company, ORIX Corporation, is a Tokyo-based, publicly owned international financial services company with operations in 37 countries and regions worldwide. ORIX Corporation is listed on the Tokyo (8591) and New York Stock Exchanges (IX). For more information on ORIX USA, visit www.orix.com.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Mod: I'm not sure how many people still read Sierra Madre's adjudicated weekly newspaper of record, and at a slender 14 entire pages the latest edition isn't exactly something you'd be able to spend a whole lot of time with. It doesn't even have any crusading local news columnists anymore.

But in case you didn't see it, those following the Henry A. Darling house debacle might find the positioning of these two marginally related front page articles interesting, if only in an unfortunate way. I know I wouldn't have placed them together if I was running the paper. Was this done by the weekly paper's publisher intentionally, or is it just one of those unhappy coincidences?

And someone needs to sit down with Vincent Gonzalez and try to find out why it is he believes the owners of the Henry A. Darling house are "very interested in maintaining the historic integrity of the property."

Monday, December 5, 2016

Mod: All of a sudden the red state boobwahzee has begun to awaken to something rather unpleasant. In backing Trump and the GOP they very well could end up losing things like their Medicare, Obamacare and Social Security. Elections really do have consequences. Which means that without those kinds of benefits poor Auntie June on chemo is now going to have to die. Quite a high price to pay for something they were told was going to be freedom from something, or other. Oh wellers, life does go on. Or maybe it doesn't.GOP Voters Suddenly Less Enthusiastic About Repeal of Obamacare Since Election of Donald Trump (Alternate.orglink): It’s been the central tenet of the Republican-controlled Congress for years now, and one of the biggest campaign promises of Donald Trump’s winning presidential campaign, but now a new poll indicates that actual Republican voters are suddenly less enthused about the prospects of a massive effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act now that the GOP is in charge of every branch of federal government.

A post-election survey released Thursday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that support for a full repeal of the health care law, called Obamacare, has significantly decreased since Trump won the election last month.

Of the 1,202 adults Kaiser surveyed from Nov. 15-21, only about one in four Americans (26 percent) responded that they support a full Obamacare repeal. And many of the law’s provisions remain popular, even across party lines, the survey found. Most popular remains the provision that permits young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26, which is supported by a full 85 percent of Americans. Even the law’s program for providing federal aid to states to help them expand their Medicaid programs for the poor is supported by 80 percent of Americans.

Most of the drop in support for a real of the law comes from self-identifying Republicans in the survey.

A little more than half — 52 percent — of Republican respondents said they want Obamacare to be repealed following Trump’s election, compared to 69 percent of Republicans who supported full repeal ahead of the election in October.

“Similarly, in October,” NPR’s Richard Gonzales noted, “just 11 percent of Republicans said they wanted the law scaled back but not eliminated. In November, that percentage increased to 24 percent.”

Even among Trump voters, only 50 percent of survey participants said they still support a full repeal now that it is evident their candidate will have to navigate a replacement plan.

In an op-ed for the website Young Conservatives, the former Alaska governor allowed that the details behind the manufacturer’s decision to keep some 1,000 jobs in Indiana at the president-elect’s behest, rather than move them to Mexico, are not yet clear. But touting the value of free markets, Palin signaled her disapproval if it was a case of “political intrusion using a stick or carrot to bribe or force one individual business to do what politicians insist.”

“When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent,” she asserted.

And in an apparent jab at Trump, whom she famously endorsed in a rambling speech earlier this year, she asked: “Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.”

The op-ed is not subtle: Palin described such government intervention as a “hallmark of corruption” and “socialism,” and then compared it to policies of the Obama administration, which she regularly rails against.

Mod: Whoever thought Sarah Palin would be going rogue on the Tangerine Nightmare? Here is some more surprising criticism from yet another grande dame of the GOP.Ann Coulter says Trump may 'sell out' on immigration (AOL Newslink): Conservative commentator Ann Coulter's strong support of President-elect Donald Trump may be faltering.

The Wrap reports that "Coulter appears to be angry over Trump backing off his campaign promise to build a wall around the United States as part of his immigration policy."

On Friday, she responded to someone on Twitter who expressed concernabout Republicans' forthcoming work on immigration. Coulter tweeted back, "Sounds like the big sell-out is coming. Oh well. The voters did what we could. If Trump sells out, it's not our fault."

However, in a recent blog post she had a stronger point of view, writing, "...if Trump doesn't appoint the sort of people capable of fulfilling his campaign promises on immigration, he will fail."

During the presidential campaign, Coulter admitted that one of the main reasons she backed Trump was because of his tough approach to illegal immigration.

Donald Trump hates Saturday Night LiveMod: In case you missed the reason for Trump's recent off the wall Tweet fit, here it is.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Mod: The Pasadena Patch broke this story locally, a sign that under its new ownership this hyper-local national network of info sites is getting into some meatier news reporting. And this is a pretty good one. Local bad boy prospers in an unfortunate kind of way, one that should set your teeth on edge. That is assuming you aren't merely a blind Trump partisan, or haven't got any choppers left. Instead of draining the Washington D.C. swamp like he once promised us, the Orange One is now stocking it with piranha instead. Trump's Treasury Pick Steven Mnuchin has Ties to Controversial Pasadena Bank (Pasadena Patchlink): President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of the treasury has a deep and wide Southland connection, with a mansion in Bel-Air, an extensive relationship with Hollywood as a prolific film financier, and a job history that includes the chairmanship of a controversial bank headquartered in Pasadena.

Now 53, Steven Mnuchin began his career at Goldman Sachs, leaving after 17 years and founding Dune Capital Management in 2004. He also was part of a team that, in 2009, bought IndyMac from the federal government for $1.6 billion, later serving as chairman of the Pasadena-based institution, which was renamed OneWest Bank Group and later sold.

In 2011, protesters gathered in front of Mnuchin’s home in Bel-Air -- it's reported to be worth $26.5 million -- to protest OneWest’s foreclosure on homeowners, many of whom were alleged to belong to minority communities.

Mod: So how did this dude become so unpopular? Kicking people out of their homes.

Trump Treasury pick made millions after his bank foreclosed on homeowners (Politicolink): Donald Trump wasn’t the only person to see opportunity in the 2008 housing collapse. As the economy recovered from the rubble of failed banks, foreclosed homes and government bailouts, Steven Mnuchin emerged a winner.

That success is coming back to haunt the hedge fund manager and Hollywood producer who is Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary. OneWest, a bank Mnuchin and his partners established during the collapse, has taken steady fire from regulators and consumer advocates for myriad failures ever since.

In Florida, the company foreclosed on a 90-year-old woman after a 27-cent payment error. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo singled out the lender for squeezing Superstorm Sandy victims. Last month, the company’s successor, CIT Bank, was accused of discriminating against minority borrowers.

“We’re just coming out of a foreclosure crisis and a serious economic downturn. It’s not the time to appoint someone who sided with corporate America over real people,” said Alys Cohen, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. “Mr. Mnuchin comes from Wall Street and has served monied interests over homeowners.”

Mnuchin, OneWest and the Trump transition team did not return calls for comment.

Mod: So who or what was IndyMac? Here is how Wikipedia describes it (link):

"IndyMac, a contraction of Independent National Mortgage Corporation, was an American bank based in Pasadena California that failed in 2008 and was seized by the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Before its failure, IndyMac Bank was the largest savings and loan association in the Los Angeles area and the seventh largest mortgage originator in the United States. The failure of IndyMac Bank on July 11, 2008, was the fourth largest bank failure in United States, and the second largest failure of a regulated thrift at that time. It was heavily involved in Alt-A mortgages and reverse mortgages which in part resulted in its dramatic rise and has been suggested as the cause for its demise as large number of these questionable loans failed during the US subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2009."Mod: Interesting, right? The collapse of sub-prime lenders like IndyMac cost the taxpayers billions. But LittleSteven Mnuchin's controversial connections to Pasadena's worst bank ever, and its equally toxic offspring OneWest Bank, doesn't end there. This from the Los Angeles real estate news site TheRealDeal.com.OneWest Bank, founded by Steven Mnuchin, accused of redlining in SoCal (The RealDeallink): Two housing advocacy groups have accused OneWest Bank, which is headquartered in Pasadena, of discriminating against black and hispanic borrowers.

He's coming for Granny's house

Steven Mnuchin, a contender for the position of Treasury Secretary in Donald Trump’s administration, founded the bank in the wake of the 2008 mortgage crisis. The groups allege the bank made few mortgages to minority homeowners and had very few branches in minority neighborhoods.

Historically, redlining referred to the Federal Housing Administration flagging neighborhoods, usually black neighborhoods, as high-risk, making it difficult for homeowners to get loans, and putting them at the mercy of lenders who could easily exploit them.

OneWest has 52 branches in Los Angeles alone, but lent to only two black borrowers across six Southern California counties throughout the years of 2014 and 2015, according to an analysis by the two housing groups, California Reinvestment Coalition and Fair Housing advocates of Northern California.

Mod: It gets worse, of course. Newsweek picked up on the Mad Munchkin's unkind ways, and filed the following story.Trump's Treasury Pick Steven Mnuchin Ran A Bank Critics Call ‘A Foreclosure Machine’ (Newsweeklink): Rose Guidel was in trouble. It was 2009 and the United States was in the grips of the Great Recession. Her brother, who had helped pay the mortgage on her modest home outside of Los Angeles, had been murdered, so she contacted her bank to say her payment would be late. The bank apparently told her it couldn’t help until she was actually behind. So she waited. When Guidel was in fact behind, the bank said she would need to modify her mortgage. But that process dragged on for two years, until she came home from work one day to find a foreclosure notice attached to her door.

“It was a moment of all my dreams crumbling down,” Guidel says. She went “from being a person, a citizen that paid her stuff and needed assistance this one time,” to someone on the verge of homelessness. Her parents, who were in their 60s and lived with her, would be out on the street too. Her mother was in a wheelchair.

The bank behind the foreclosure was OneWest. And the man behind OneWest was Steven Mnuchin. On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump announced he is nominating Mnuchin for treasury secretary, a move that has people like Guidel concerned. Those who have challenged his banking and housing practices for years through protests, federal complaints and in court are worried that what his bank customers experienced could prove to be a microcosm of how he might treat the country.

“It’s actually very concerning,” says Guidel. “He was in charge of OneWest Bank. Now we’re talking about giving him a position that’s way bigger and can affect a lot more families.”

(Later): In 2008, when the recession hit, Mnuchin saw an opportunity. He and a handful of investors purchased the failed Pasadena California-based bank IndyMac from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It was unusual for unregulated private investors to buy it instead of a bank holding company, The New York Times reported in 2009, and only possible because the federal government had eased regulations on such transactions.

The buyers renamed the bank OneWest and worked out a loss-share agreement with the FDIC so the agency would partially reimburse the bank for handling foreclosures. This meant OneWest could get federal money for kicking someone like Guidel out of her home.

Fair-housing advocates have decried OneWest’s loss-share agreement, prompting the FDIC to issue a statement in 2010 saying, “OneWest has not been paid one penny by the FDIC in loss-share claims.” But through the Freedom of Information Act, the California Reinvestment Coalition, which monitors housing issues facing communities of color and low-income communities, found that between 2009 and 2015, the FDIC paid the bank more than $1 billion for at least 36,000 foreclosures.

As chairman and CEO of OneWest, Mnuchin was likely largely behind those foreclosures and strategies. “This is someone who profited by running a bank that foreclosed on tens of thousands of people in our state, so making money off of the misfortune of working families,” says Kevin Stein, deputy director of the California Reinvestment Coalition. He has called OneWest “a foreclosure machine.”

Mod: One more MeanMunchkin story for you."I just wish that I had not voted": Trump voter lost her home to new Treasury secretary (Associated Press link): When Donald Trump named his Treasury secretary, Teena Colebrook felt her heart sink. She had voted for the president-elect on the belief that he would knock the moneyed elites from their perch in Washington, D.C. And she knew Trump's pick for Treasury – Steven Mnuchin – all too well.

OneWest, a bank formerly owned by a group of investors headed by Mnuchin, had foreclosed on her Los Angeles-area home in the aftermath of the Great Recession, stripping her of the two units she rented as a primary source of income.

"I just wish that I had not voted," said Colebrook, 59. "I have no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise you the world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in."

Mod: This guy is a real sweetheart. Here is a video of some of the people Munchkin foreclosed on demonstrating at his Bel-Air mansion. I'm sure a few of you are going to be horrified at the sight of these people doing such a thing.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

If you prefer to watch City Council and Planning Commission meetings on-line, but have found that KGEM just isn't all that dependable a source, you now have an option. As an example, Thursday evening's get-together to discuss the Henry A. Darling House was not available live on the KGEM website. That site, despite claiming it carries such things, had no immediate link to that meeting, and those who depend upon KGEM to connect them with such important events were once again left in the lurch.

Fortunately there is an option, and it is one that I have been using for a while. You can now watch SMTV3Live Streams of any City Council or Planning Commission meeting on YouTube. As you will see if you click on the link I've provided above, you can view all four hours of last Thursday evening's confab should you so choose. And since this was a "Live Stream," it can be as immediate as watching a television broadcast, and it remains available on the site after the meeting is over in case you got home late like I did.

Remember when it sometimes took days for video replays of these meetings to get posted on KGEM? On YouTube they are always available live, and then stay on the site forever.

Another benefit is that you can decide which part of the meeting you want to see. Using the cursor at the bottom of the video stream, you can now view only those segments of a meeting you care to watch, even as the rest of that meeting is still going on. You can also have your own personal instant replays if you think you might have missed an important nuance or two.

Try doing that with your funky old television set. Kind of useful when you're really not sure if you want to wade through hours of sometimes not exactly scintillating content to get to what you actually want to see. You can skip to whatever you want.

What if you actually attended a meeting, and even spoke from the public comment podium while you were there? You can then pull out your laptop and instantly critique your performance. Or just admire your striking good looks, as so many who tune in often do.

I think it is the best way to catch Sierra Madre meetings. You watch whenever you want to watch, replay any segments anytime you wish, skip all of the annoying stuff, and always at your own convenience. And even though Thursday's Planning Commission meeting was not available live time on KGEM, it was on YouTube. And it is still there. You can watch it now.

You can even access YouTube Live Streams on your smart phone and watch wherever and whenever you like. Imagine enjoying an action packed live City Council meeting on your iPhone while downing a couple of cold ones at Lucky Baldwins. That would work, too. Sometimes you need a drink just to get through one of these things.

Pretty cool, eh? In the future I will be posting YouTubeCity Council and Planning Commission meeting links here with our preview articles on The Tattler. You will never have to miss one again.

Friday, December 2, 2016

It was an action packed Planning Commission meeting last night. Watching William Kefalas slowly come to the realization that there could actually be consequences for what had done to the Henry A. Darling house was quite a sight. No matter how hard he tried, William couldn't talk his way out of it. I am not sure he is used to that. He appeared to need to run full tilt at something he couldn't quite knock down, only to discover too late that it was a brick wall. Here is some of what we saw.

Attorney Highsmith made it clear that the only way to penalize the owner with a fine was to turn it over to the District Attorney for criminal prosecution. The DA, in her opinion, would not be interested. So what do we have as a financial remedy to this kind of act? Not enough. The Planning Commission does have the ability to stop the work for two years. That was the only possible punishment. Talk about a stacked deck in favor of dishonest developers.

The owner started off by thanking the community for showing an interest, and then apologized. Yep, thanks and I’m sorry. No, really. “I realize the situation has put you in a dilemma,” he said to the commissioners. The "situation” did it, not him, huh?

William had questions about the “technical feasibility” of the suggestions the Planning Commission made. When he said “There is a huge project undertaking here,” it was as though this had not occurred to him before.

Commissioner Hinton showed she has the chops to have been an effective prosecutor. Twice she asked him to answer whether he had been told by the agent that the house was potentially historic. He waffled and wiggled, so she asked again, stressing the word potentially. When Kefalas threw ReniRose under the bus by saying “No,” Ms. Hinton asked if he would provide the disclosure papers to the commission. They would be interesting reading.

Another “feasibility” problem arose when William was asked about what he did with the wainscoting and the ceiling. It wasn’t “feasible” to store it, he claimed. So off to the dumps in trash trucks it went.

Commissioner Spears asked if the owner had inspected the property before he bought it. Was he aware of the challenges with the foundation? When the owner said yes, Spears inquired “So you went into this with your eyes open?” Then Spears, with some open eyes of his own, asked the owner what he meant when he said “my crew,” and was he a contractor. The owner replied that “We are in property management so I do have people who work for me.”

Hinton asked if the owner would be will to reduce the size of the house, to get it back closer to what it was, and he said “No.”

An architect got up from his seat to say they should hire an architect. One versed in the special needs of 100 year old houses, because obviously what they had now was clueless.

Richard Crea (?), who resides in the Canyon, asked “What did you buy it for in the first place?" The owner knew exactly what he was doing and tore it apart as fast as he could. Crea said it would be fitting if they had to give it back to nature for awhile, and then start again.

A woman named Laurie told the commissioners, “Your response should match what was done to this house. Otherwise, you’re saying it’s okay." Heather Allen said it was both tragic and ironic.

Mary (Radford?) gave a great talk about having seen the house and wanting to buy it. She also said the realtor did not identify the Henry A. Darling house as being historically significant, but that when she saw the house being hauled away in dump trucks it was terrible. Everything should have been salvaged.

John Hutt asked Mary if she was certain the realtor never disclosed the historic nature of this house to her. She said yes, and that part of the mystery then deepened further.

The Planning Commission was pretty tough on Kefalas, especially Bob Spears. Bob seemed quite determined to convince William that there are consequences to such wrong acts, and that he needs to put on his big boy pants and accept that.

The biggest penalty they could give Kefalas is to reduce the size of the home he can build because that add-on to the left side impacts on the historical nature of the house. That's what Kefalas was most worried about. Smaller house, smaller profit. Or maybe none. He was ok with everything else because it doesn't deviate that much from his original plan.

The catch here is that if the city had the Historical Resource Report in their hands in advance of the CUP, the Planning Commission would never have allowed what they did. And should Kefalas get impacted in that way, that would be a far better penalty than even a 2-year stay on building.

Pleading poverty, Kefalas suggested that if he didn't get his way, he might just walk away from the project. Nobody seemed all that bothered by the threat.

Bob Spears said at the meeting that in his 10 years on the Planning Commission, he and the rest of the commissioners have never received so many emails against what Kefalas did.

This will all pick back up at the second Planning Commission meeting in January.

Preserve Sierra Madre weighs inDear Supporters: First, we again want to thank our supporters for taking an interest in preservation and, in particular, what happened to the 1907 Craftsman known as the Henry A. Darling House. At last night's meeting, Commissioner Spears said that in his 10 years on the Planning Commission, he has never received so many emails about one issue as he did in this case. So thank you to all those who were able to take the time to do that as well as attend the meeting. It makes a difference when the Planning Commission knows the pulse of the community before they are called upon to make a vote.

In briefly summarizing the meeting, to say the Planning Commission was not pleased with the actions of the present owners of 126 E. Mira Monte would be an understatement. They concluded that the owners had violated the Demolition Ordinance and they agreed with the Historical Resources Report that the Darling House has historical significance. The only problem is that they received the report after the demolition had occurred. If the Planning Commission had received it prior to the demolition as called for in the Demolition Ordinance then they would not have allowed the owner to do certain things to a home that had been deemed historically significant. It appears now that what already was improved in the CUP, now needs to be modified in light of this new information.

The Planning Commission is now left with the dilemma of whether to punish the applicant by imposing a 2-year work-stoppage on the project and perhaps further damaging what little is left of the house or allowing the project to go forward but under very strict guidelines that are consistent with the determination that the home is historically significant. Before that can be done, the applicant was asked to get a Certificate of Appropriateness which will now put the historical aspects of the home at the forefront. Once the Planning Commission has all the facts, they may be able to make a final decision as to the fate of the Darling House and punishment for the owners at their January 19th meeting.

It cannot be overstated what a great job our Planning Commissioners, City Attorney and City Staff are doing to ensure that the people's desire for preserving our historical resources is taken into account. If you weren't at the meeting, you can go to the City's website and watch it online for yourself.

Thank you for your support.Steering CommitteePreserve Sierra Madre

So how is the Presidential vote recount going?

They haven't even started the recount yet and a third of Trump's Pennsylvania vote lead just vanished. Click here for details. Also, the Trump camp is now trying to stop the recount in Michigan. Which strongly suggests that they know his victory may fall apart under examination. Here's the complaint his lawyers filed - link. Tang has now also filed a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania (link). Why would he do that?

Thursday, December 1, 2016

First, thank you to all of our supporters who sent emails or attended the last Planning Commission meeting that dealt with improvements to the Demolition Ordinance. The Planning Commission will continue to discuss that important issue at a future meeting.

Meanwhile, this Thursday, December 1st at 7:00 pm and the first item on the agenda, is what to do about the devastation done to the 1907 Craftsman home well known as the Henry A. Darling House located at 126 E. Mira Monte. The present owner has almost completely gutted the interior and virtually the only thing left of that magnificent home is the framing.

The reasons our City Council worked so hard to save that particular home by passing an emergency Demolition Moratorium has now been substantiated by the conclusions found in the after-the-fact Historical Resources Evaluation Report done by Architectural historian Charles Fisher who fortunately had toured the home before it was torn down. It can be found as Exhibit B in the Staff Report on the city's website (link).

Mr. Fisher reveals in his report that he was actually called out to the home by the previous owners who were proposing to demolish the home but were stymied by Mr. Fisher's verbal conclusions that the home appeared to have architectural significance. Evidently no report was prepared at that time because a demolition was no longer deemed a viable option.

The home was then re-sold to the present owners who are now applying for an after-the fact demolition permit which requires a written report under the demolition ordinance. The report speaks for itself and explains in great detail what everyone had already suspected about the home's significance.

An important question is whether Mr. Fisher's prior visit and verbal conclusions to the old owners were disclosed to the present owners when they bought the house and before the "deconstruction" began. In other words, were the present owner's put on notice that the home they were buying had architectural significance which would constrain them from making certain modifications to the home as it constrained the prior owners?

The last question to be answered is what our Planning Commission will do to maintain the integrity of our building codes and prevent historically significant properties from being demolished? What message will their actions send to others who may not value our historical resources the way we do.

Here's how you can help:

1. Send an email to Leticia Cardoso at lcardoso@cityofsierramadre.com and address it to the Planning Commission. She will forward it to them. If you sent an email about this previously, please forward it again so that it will have an impact on the particular decision to be made for 126 E. Mira Monte.

2. Attend the Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, Dec. 1st. It's the first item on the agenda and so you won't have to wait long.

What happens at that meeting will set the tone for historical preservation in Sierra Madre long into the future. We have every hope and confidence that our great Planning Commission will do the right thing but they need our support.

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

A contentious article recently ran in the Pasadena Star News (link), one that again reinforces the impression many have that certain political suzerainties within the Rose CityRump State really are incredibly out of touch. And the issue, at least in my opinion, isn't so much about undocumented or illegal aliens being allowed to vote in Pasadena Unified school board elections. I am sure there are those from both sides of the question who are deeply concerned about that, but to me it is all fairly irrelevant. There is a much bigger issue that needs to be discussed.

As we now know, one of the more stark revelations emerging from the recently enacted "redistricting process" is that just because the local school district has gerrymandered its voting subdistricts along ethnic lines does not mean that anyone from amongst those sheltered zones is more likely to vote.

If anything, voter turnout within most subdistricts has remained dismal at best. And while the stated purpose may have been to elect more Hispanic BOE members, so far the only such board candidate to actually get elected under this regimen is from the whitest subdistrict within the Pasadena Unified School District, Sierra Madre.

Let me ask you this. If you were an undocumented alien living in the PUSD region, would you really want to risk registering to vote in something as comparatively unimportant as a Board of Education election? Would this seem like a good trade-off to you in the Donald J. Trump era? A time when a president-elect and his racially hostile stooges rant incessantly about deporting millions of, you got it, undocumented aliens? Would you really want to take that chance?

Actual citizens of the United States do not bother to vote in Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education elections. How can those who would risk deportation and separation from their families by registering to vote in these elections be expected to take such a risk?

Unless this is some sort of an ICE funded voter honey trap, I cannot see why anyone would be advocating for such a thing. Do these people actually believe this would improve voter turnout, or elect new blood to the Boardof Education? Are these folks so completely clueless that they would actually put the parents of so many of their students at risk?

The Star News article is titled "Pasadena group pushing to give voting rights to non-citizen PUSD parents" and can be accessed here (link). Here is a portion of it.

News Outlets Rethink Usage of the Term Alt-Right (New York Timeslink): When The Washington Post published a profile last week of Richard B. Spencer, a prominent leader of the so-called alt-right, readers were quick to respond. By Monday, the article had drawn more than 2,600 comments.

Many of them had a similar message. “Please, please stop referring to a white Christian supremacist movement as the ‘alt-right’ — a phrase that sounds like a subgenre of rock music,” one reader wrote.

Another was more pointed: “STOP CALLING THEM ‘ALT-RIGHT.’ THEY ARE RACISTS, WHITE SUPREMICISTS, NAZIS.”

With the election of Donald J. Trump — and his subsequent appointment of Stephen K. Bannon, a former chairman of the right-wing website Breitbart News, as his chief White House strategist — the term alt-right has emerged as a linguistic flash point.

Generally deployed by news organizations to describe a far-right, white nationalist movement known for its aggressive online expression, the term has attracted widespread criticism among those, particularly on the left, who say it euphemizes and legitimizes the ideologies of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy.

Mod: The rest of this New York Times article will be available to you by clicking on the link above.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

So here is the theory that is currently making the rounds. The city approved and apparently now architectural historian of record, a guy named Charles J. Fisher, had been in the Henry A. Darling house before. There was an important purpose for his having been there. The Brown family, who as you might recall were the previous owners of this property, brought Mr. Fisher in to look the place over and do the required historical assessment. They were concerned the place might actually have some kind of historical significance, and that could have an impact on their plans to demolish this 1907 home and replace it was something current.

Oh, and pay for it all by splitting the lot. But that is another story.

Fisher, after having carefully looked the place over, told them that yes, the Henry A. Darling house was a property having some historical significance. And since the Browns, who were apparently not interested in having to come up with the considerable wherewithal it would take to restore the place, changed their minds, abandoned their locally controversial strategy, and sold it. Which brings us to the current owners.

The Realtor who assisted in the purchase of this property was Reni Rose. This was true for both the Browns and the Kefalas families. And an important part of her legal responsibilities as a Realtor would have been to disclose the historical significance of the Henry A. Darling house to the Kefalas clan. After all, this was something that would have a considerable effect on how the property could, and most definitely could not, be used.

And, as we already know, the Brown's concern about this issue was no secret. They had already bailed out because of it.

It is important to note that Charles J. Fisher only wrote his report after having been commissioned to do so by Mr. and Mrs. Kefalas. The Browns, who had been given news they did not want to hear by this noted Pasadena architectural historian, never saw the need to hire him to write any reports. They'd already heard enough. This was only done after William Kefalas had been told by the Sierra Madre Planning Commission to do so. Something that may very well become tantamount to having to pay for the rope they will hang him with this coming Thursday evening.

So why did Kefalas for all intents and purposes destroy the Henry A. Darling property? Despite having been hopefully made aware of its historical - and therefore legal - significance by his helpful local Realtor, the intriguing Ms. Rose?

Despite his claims of innocence, I believe Kefalas must have known about this issue because another party had previously made an offer to buy the Darling home from the Brown family, and knew that architectural historian Charles Fisher had visited the home at their request. Because this guy was aware that the home would be found to be historically significant, he made a lower offer because ownership and restoration costs would be greater.

Taking all of that into account, my guess is Kefalas must have believed he could power through any such concerns by quickly destroying this historic house, thereby leaving the city with no other option but to allow him to finish the project as he saw fit. A legally dicey strategy perhaps, but one that has unfortunately worked for others in Sierra Madre. In other words, Kefalas thought he could get away with it. And as of this typing (11/28/16 - 11:43 PM), perhaps he has.

Which brings us to an even larger issue. A city that will not defend its laws and codes is not really a city at all. Rather it is merely an organized opportunity for wink and nod backroom deals with unscrupulous local players interested in just one thing, making easy money. You can write all the General Plans and fine preservationist ordinances you wish, but unless you back them up with significant consequences to those who would so badly abuse this community and its irreplaceable heritage for narrow personal gain, you have achieved absolutely nothing.

I cannot give you a link to the Charles J. Fisher report. It was forwarded to me by invisible hands and is not, to my knowledge, available on the Internet. But here is a portion of it. And do note the cameo appearance of The Tattler. I'd be lying if I told you I'm not pleased by the mention.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Mod: Although the author of the Agenda Report for this item does struggle mightily to not appear to make any conclusions of his own, it does appear that the historical significance of the inappropriately demolished Henry A. Darling home has in fact now been established. All it will take is for the Planning Commission to officially recognize this as fact. Here is some of that report (link).

Mod: The rest of this agenda report can be accessed through the link provided above. It would appear that the applicants can now begin looking forward to a difficult evening on December 1st. sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Mod: There is quite a lot to cover, so let's get right down to it. Shall we?Ahead of recount, Wisconsin has already wiped out 5,000 imaginary Donald Trump votes (Palmer Reportlink): Earlier today we reported that three precincts in the Wisconsin county of Outagamie had revised their vote totals downward for Donald Trump by more than a thousand votes combined, with local officials insisting to their local ABC News affiliate that it was a mere arithmetic error. But as more revisions come in throughout the state, a total of nearly five thousand Trump votes in Wisconsin have now been taken off the official board because they apparently never existed to begin with.

At the end of election night the New York Times reported that Donald Trump had won the state of Wisconsin with a total of 1,409,467 votes, giving him a winning margin of 27,257 votes over Hillary Clinton’s total of 1,382,210. These numbers were based on what the individual counties and precincts were reporting that night. But now seventeen days later, based on various Wisconsin precincts revising their own totals, Dave Wasserman of the respected Cook Political Report has updated the totals. Donald Trump now has 1,404,536 total votes in Wisconsin, while Hillary Clinton now has 1,382,011 total votes.

Two things immediately jump out, as first spotted by critic Dave Greenwald. The first is that, even ahead of the forthcoming recount in Wisconsin, Donald Trump’s lead has already shrunk to just 22,525 votes. That means 18% of his “lead” has already vanished, based on precincts catching some of their own incorrect numbers, and internet gawkers catching others. But the second thing that jumps out is that the revisions have served to erase thousands of votes from Trump, while affirming that Clinton’s vote total was essentially correct to begin with.

Mod: Wisconsin is the first of three states recounting their presidential votes at the request of the Green Party. If it flips expect all hell to break loose. Michigan and Pennsylvania follow.

Clinton Campaign to Participate in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan Recounts, Top Lawyer Says (Alternet link): The Clinton campaign will participate in the presidential recounts initiated by the Green Party, its top election lawyer Marc Elias said Saturday, even though the campaign does not expect it to change the results giving Donald Trump an Electoral College majority. Elias, writing on medium.com, gave the campaign’s most detailed post-election accounting of its private inquiries into the possibility that the vote counts were not accurate or had possibly been hacked. They said they had quietly explored all of the avenues they could, including a meeting with the team that filed for the Greens, which led to a leaked story that computer experts were pressuring the Clinton campaign to file for a recount.

Elias’ statement said it was the campaign’s duty to see the process through to its end, including being present as recounts unfold in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. On Friday, the Green Party filed for a recount in Wisconsin. There are plans to file for a recount in Pennsylvania starting Monday, which is a county-by-county process, and in Michigan on Wednesday. Elias said they would “participate” in the recount without specifying exactly what that may entail.Mod: Like Jill Stein, the Clinton camp is handling this in a very circumspect way. Their participation at all means they must think there is at least a possibility that this election was hacked.Donald Trump Calls Green Party’s Wisconsin Recount Push A ‘Scam’ (Huffington Postlink): U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday called a request for a recount of votes in Wisconsin a “scam” by the Green Party and said even his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton had said the election results should be accepted.

“This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount,” Trump said.

Stein denied Trump’s claims that funds raised for the recount would be allocated elsewhere.

“For his information, this is all going into a dedicated and segregated account so that it can only be spent on the recount,” Stein told CNN on Saturday.

“He may be creating his own facts here as he’s been known to do some times in the past,” Stein said. “He himself said it was rigged election unless he won it.”

Mod: Somebody seems to be worried about something. You can only wonder what is going on behind the scenes.Americans keep looking away from the election’s most alarming story (Washington Postlink): In assessing Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Americans continue to look away from this election’s most alarming story: the successful effort by a hostile foreign power to manipulate public opinion before the vote. U.S. intelligence agencies determined that the Russian government actively interfered in our elections.

Russian state propaganda gave little doubt that this was done to support President-elect Trump, who repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin and excused the Russian president’s foreign aggression and domestic repression. Most significantly, U.S. intelligence agencies have affirmed that the Russian government directed the illegal hacking of private email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and prominent individuals. The emails were then released by WikiLeaks, which has benefited financially from a Russian state propaganda arm, used Russian operatives for security and made clear an intent to harm the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

From the Russian perspective, the success of this operation can hardly be overstated.

Mod: I cannot begin to tell you how little respect I have for anyone who fell for this.Letters To California Mosques Praise Donald Trump, Promise Genocide (The Huffington Postlink): Religious leaders in California are calling for a police investigation after identical letters were sent to local mosques hailing President-elect Donald Trump and calling for death to Muslims.

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement asking for increased protection after the hate-filled letters were discovered at the Islamic centers of Long Beach and Claremont as well as a mosque in San Jose.

The handwritten and photocopied letters, received over the course of the week, were signed by “Americans for a Better Way.” They call Muslims “a vile and filthy people” who “worship the devil” and evoke Trump.

“There’s a new sheriff in town — President Donald Trump. He’s going to cleanse America and make it shine again. And, he’s going to start with you Muslims,” the letters read. “He’s going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews.”

Mod: What is it about wanna-be Hitlers and their love for DonaldTrump?GOP cuts in Medicare may be next after dismantling Obamacare (The Fiscal Timeslink): The pledge by President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act beginning early next year has dominated the national policy debate since Trump, and the GOP swept to victory in last week's election.

With potentially 20 million or more Americans threatened with the disruption or loss of their Obamacare insurance coverage in the coming years, Trump and GOP leaders are coming under mounting pressure to explain precisely how they would replace Obamacare once they pass legislation early next year to dismantle key elements of the program.

However, practically overnight the Republicans have substantially raised the stakes in their drive to reform the government health care system and cut costs. House Budget Committee Chair Tom Price (R-GA) told reporters on Thursday that the House GOP will likely push next year for major changes and cuts in Medicare, the premier health care program for 57 million seniors that has been the bedrock of retirees' health coverage since the mid-1960s.

Mod: Some so-called "Patriots" are going to be mightily surprised when their government funded medical benefits such as Medicare are suddenly taken away.

Irony Is Dead: Mike Pence Goes To Court To Block His Emails From Being Released To Public (IfYouOnlyNews.comlink): Until recently, Mike Pence was known as the governor whose hatred towards gay people burned so hot that he lost his state of Indiana millions of dollars in business in order to legalize the discrimination of the LGBT community. Now he’s known as the future vice president. In the aftermath of the shocking election results, pundits have cited Hillary Clinton’s email “scandal” as one explanation as to why she lost. (Whether it ever truly existed is another question.) Thanks to her private email server, voters viewed her with suspicion and distrust. She appeared to be a politician with something to hide. Trump himself suggested he might throw her in jail over her emails once he became president.

Enter Mike Pence, whose lawyers have launched a battle to prevent his own inconvenient emails from ever being made public. That distant wailing you just heard was irony dying.

The [Pence] administration is fighting to conceal the contents of an email sent to Gov. Mike Pence by a political ally. That email is being sought by a prominent Democratic labor lawyer who says he wants to expose waste in the Republican administration.

But legal experts fear the stakes may be much higher than mere politics because the decision could remove a judicial branch check on executive power and limit a citizen’s right to know what the government is doing and how it spends taxpayer dollars.

The Pence administration email in question was in regards to Pence going behind the backs of the Indiana government to hire a private lawfirm to help him file a frivolous lawsuit against President Obama as a publicity stunt. The total expense of this stunt has never been made public. Democrats in the state were hoping to learn more about this government waste by analyzing Pence’s emails surrounding the decision. Instead, they hit a brick wall built by Pence’s lawyers.

Mod: The man known as the "Human Q-Tip" does seem to have a certain flair for self-immolating hypocrisy.Ann Coulter: It's 1928 All Over Again! (Crooks And Liarslink): Boy, is Ann Coulter dumb. In addition to having her facts wrong, does she really want to point to the start of the Great Depression as the last time Republicans held the White House, the House and the Senate? Really?

Just for the record, Republicans had all three from 2002-2007. And more to the point, when they held all three from 2002-2007, the Great Recession happened.

You see a pattern here? If I were Ann Coulter, I wouldn't be trumpeting those associations.

Mod: I'm not too sure that Herbert Hoover would be pleased by this, either.

Trump Christmas Ornament Raises Eyebrows (Voice Of Americalink): Donald Trump won’t be sworn in as president until January, but those reveling in his victory and eager to be reminded of it throughout the holiday season can buy a Christmas tree ornament bearing his famous campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Made in the shape of a miniature red hat like the one Trump wore at numerous rallies, the ornament is advertised as brass with gold trim and sells for $149. Purchases constitute non-refundable contributions to a Trump fundraising committee, as well as the Republican National Committee.

Like Trump himself, the ornament has sparked widely divergent reactions. The reviews section on retailer Amazon.com instantly became a forum for people to register their feelings about the president-elect, his policies and persona.

“Every time I try to hang it on the branch, it yells 'WRONG!' No matter which branch I try, it's 'WRONG!'” a reviewer wrote. “I woke up and there was a wall around my tree,” another wrote.

“Millions of Americans and I ordered the 'Stronger Together' ornament. Imagine our disappointment when this is what we got,” another wrote.

“Let's make America great again ornament has liberals in the corner sucking their thumbs holding onto a blankie. My ornament is proudly displayed on my Christmas tree where we say, God Bless America and Merry Christmas,” said another reviewer.

“This is a great ornament! So excited to ring in a new year with Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence at the helm! God Bless America,” a reviewer posted.

“Unfortunately this has turned out to be as disappointingly and frustratingly repugnant as the BREXIT ornament,” another posted.

Advertising for the ornament proclaims “It is sure to make any tree stand out” and “President-elect Trump loves Christmas and makes a point of proudly saying ‘Merry Christmas’ every chance he gets.”

“Of course, like most things bearing the Trump name, this was mass produced in China,” a reviewer posted.

Mod: I'm not surprised about the "Made InChina" origin of such tackiness. There isn't much that Donald Trump (Я -Moscow) won't do to make an easy buck.

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From time to time people get in touch with me hoping to place an ad on The Tattler. Until now I have gently explained that no advertising is accepted here because it would detract from the volunteer nature of the project. However, I have now reconsidered, and this blog will take advertising, but only at what I call a "motivated monthly rate." Here is that rate schedule:

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Neuroblast Films

If you're interested in Sierra Madre politics (and if you're reading The Tattler chances are pretty good that you are), you owe it to yourself to check out the Neuroblast Films site on You Tube. It features some key filmed moments from recent Sierra Madre history, all from the perspective of those who love the place. Be sure to rate the films and leave comments. Click on "videos" to see the entire inventory, there is a lot available. Another fine website for you to enjoy!http://www.youtube.com/neuroblastfilms

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MVN Columnist Rich Johnson Speaks Out On the Importance of the Sierra Madre Tattler

"My last submission supported the blog in that it provides another viewpoint on issues of interest to Sierra Madreans. If it is right or wrong is immaterial. If it gets you involved in the process of being a citizen it is important."

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Quotes On Government

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

"What we call civilized society is in reality a vast insane asylum held together at the points of guns." - Vito Caporale

"In our civilization, and under our form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office." - Ambrose Bierce

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them." - Mark Twain

"I would rather lose in a cause that will someday win, than win in a cause that will someday lose." - Woodrow Wilson

"The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare." - Daniel P. Moynihan

"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you." - Will Rogers

"My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on." - John F. Kennedy

"Ask not what the government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't. - Gerhard Kocher

"The best minds in government? If any were, business would hire them away." - Ronald Reagan

"Government is not the doctor. It is the disease." - H.S. Ferns

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." - Edward Abbey

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." - Henry Luis Mencken

"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill

"The most important political office is that of private citizen." - Louis Brandeis

"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what it is you think you want to hear." - Alan Coren

"You don't pay taxes - they take taxes." - Chris Rock

Readings

"Take stock of those around you and you will ... hear them talk in precise terms about themselves and their surroundings, which would seem to point to them having ideas on the matter. But start to analyse those ideas and you will find that they hardly reflect in any way the reality to which they appear to refer, and if you go deeper you will discover that there is not even an attempt to adjust the ideas to this reality. Quite the contrary: through these notions the individual is trying to cut off any personal vision of reality, of his own very life. For life is at the start a chaos in which one is lost. The individual suspects this, but he is frightened at finding himself face to face with this terrible reality, and tries to cover it over with a curtain of fantasy, where everything is clear. It does not worry him that his 'ideas' are not true, he uses them as trenches for the defense of his existence, as scarecrows to frighten away reality." - Jose Ortega y Gasset

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced." - Soren Kierkegaard

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